Agiel

Not sure how many of you would be willing to make the plunge into yet another MMO, but En Masse Entertainment will be holding a server test soon which among other things will allow players to immediately promote a new character of their choice to level 58 so they can dive right into the end-game content in short order. While it does suffer from the same MMO tropes in quest design, I find the combat involving enough for it to have been my MMO poison of choice for the past year (true, issues with matchmaking, class balance, and the gear treadmill certainly keeps the PvP from being all it can be). It's also quite easily the prettiest MMO I've ever played as well (you may see why in the following images ). Details of the event can be found here: http://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums/general-discussion/topics/Level-Up-Test-Event-Limited-Chance-for-a-Free-Level-58-Character-94757 However, should you find yourself enticed by this prospect and plan on joining the primary PvP server, Mount Tyrannus, look me up as my level 60 Castanic Sorceress, Lamashtu: And my 50 Amani Berzerker, Lillitu:

I'm just curious. Who exactly do you think believes this? Russians fighting a war without artillery would be like the British fighting a war without losing for the first year. Soviets didn't call artillery "The God of War" for nuthin'

I think that's right. Standard field artillery is 105 mm or 155 mm , self-propelled artillery 155mm. The only larger caliber I know of are the 227mm MLRS. The United States as well as Soviet successor states have operated 203mm self-propelled howitzer pieces in the form of the M-110 and the 2S7 Pion respectively (the latter remains in active service). However the advent of smart munitions and advances in fire-control systems have indeed reduced the importance of caliber, explosive power, and sheer volume of fire in the effectiveness of artillery. I thought the 203mm M-110s had all been retired in the 1990s. Thanks for the correction. Well the US Army did retire them as you said. Just pointing out that they were a part of the US inventory in relatively recent history

I think that's right. Standard field artillery is 105 mm or 155 mm , self-propelled artillery 155mm. The only larger caliber I know of are the 227mm MLRS. The United States as well as Soviet successor states have operated 203mm self-propelled howitzer pieces in the form of the M-110 and the 2S7 Pion respectively (the latter remains in active service). However the advent of smart munitions and advances in fire-control systems have indeed reduced the importance of caliber, explosive power, and sheer volume of fire in the effectiveness of artillery.

**** bats. _I_ hunt mozzies. Could you do it as well as this man?

One of the major gripes of the P-51D Mustang and the soon to be released FW-190 D9 "Dora" modules for DCS is the lack of a plausible theater (they still use the Georgia map made by Eagle Dynamics) and period-appropriate threats (even against the "slow, lard-ass" A-10, which can be armed with 9-Mikes, it's a hilariously one-sided dogfight in favour of the Hawg). However, some of the people behind the famed Il-2 Sturmovik series have stepped up to the plate to fix those problems with a Normandy 1944 theater and a whole new roster of period appropriate aircraft, "targets (ground vehicles)" and then some. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/508681281/dcs-wwii-europe-1944/posts/597595 Despite a strong start and a goal that is projected to be reached quite easily, the prospects of it reaching its stretch goals look grim. Most notably the B-17 Flying Fortress complete with all the crew stations (pilots, bombardier, and anti-aircraft gunners) at $500,000 as well as the dreaded Me-262A (the world's first fighter jet) and the ultimate goal, German night fighters (complete with the Schräge Musik for shooting down those poor Wimpys and Lancasters) at $1,000,000. It's got 19 days to go, so every little bit helps from here until then.

Something odd I've noticed today when I came back home for a bit of vacation between my Summer and Fall quarters of school. The local El Pollo Loco at a strip mall was closed down to be replaced by a Starbucks. Thing was, there was already another Starbucks in the strip mall across the street, which was no more than a 2 minute walk away. And my town is a relatively podunk town to begin with. I've frequently used hyperbole to describe the ubiquity of the damned things, now life begins to imitate art. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENGUYeiGtNk

Really interesting adventure game from Ubisoft. A hyperlink story taking place during World War I/The Great War. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/09/10/impressions-valiant-hearts/ I nominally abhor point-and-click adventure games (the comically obtuse puzzles of The Longest Journey forever turned me off from the genre ever since), but this has seriously piqued my interest (though it helps from the preview that the goal of the designers is to make actual real-life "situations" to solve rather than improbably contrived adventure game puzzles). I watched the trailer, and I actually cried a tear from that.

Obsidian big-wig: "Hrmmm... 5 cents an hour it is, and not a penny more!"

November 1989, just outside of Frankfurt, Federal Republic of Germany. "Kampfpanzer! Zwei Uhr!" ("Tank! 2 o'clock!") "KE geladen!" ("Sabot up!") "Erkannt! Herr Kommandant!" ("Identified!") "Feuer frei! Danach Zielwechsel nach Links" ("Fire! Take the left one next!") "Verstanden! Ich schieße, Ach-tung!" ("Understood! Firing! Caution!) T-72B loses his head after taking a 120mm Tungsten DM-33 round from a Leopard 2A4. "Treffer! Panzer brent!" ("Target hit! Tank is burning.")

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyUf7r_9yNs#t=0m52s I bet you after that the dude's nipples could scratch glass.

Meh, no crpg in sight. No tactical squad based combat game either for that matter. RTS and shooters seems to be all that runs out of the munitorum factories these days I'm waiting to see what DoW3 will look like, assuming it gets made. I'll probably be in the minority, but I hope it's more like DoW2 and less like DoW1. I can't handle traditional RTS with base building, resource management, and large armies, but squad-based RTS, I can definitely get down with that. Relic says that while they no longer work for a company that holds exclusive rights to make games using the 40K license, they still retain the rights to "Dawn of War." Given that Games Workshop has given permission to use the 40K license to a whole host of different companies that are totally unrelated since THQ folded which implies the license has gone "mercenar" as it were, they'd have to be stupid to not let Relic make a Dawn of War III. I do happen to like the happy medium between the micro-intensive battles of DoW II and the CnC-ish macro-game of DoW I Relic found with Company of Heroes, so that's my hope for Dawn of War III (well, that and that they include Harlequins for the Eldar and Catachans for the Imperial Guard).

While things are looking pretty rosy so far, any word on mod tools? Even if it leads to the inevitable "Animated Prostitution" mods, the fact that they were taken away in Dragon Age II (as was the overhead camera, which thankfully has been restored in Inquisition) when they were available for Dragon Age: Origins did feel like another slap in the face to PC gamers. Of course given the state of Battlefield 3, I'm not holding my breath.

Clue me in where you found that. Haven't gotten balls-deep into ArmA II since I've been toying around with the newfangled ArmA III beta. Also this during a single-player mission. My wingman got a little too close to some Red SHORAD and took 3 SA-9 hits for his trouble. Eventually the craft gave out within sight of the airstrip, but it was close enough that he could swim to shore and hoof it back to base

Do the Qunari not cut out the tongues of mages? Would make for a very interesting role-playing opportunity playing as a mute Inquisitor, kind of like playing a low-intelligence PC in Fallout 1 and 2

"Insanity... is... doing the exact... same f***ing thing... over and over and over again... expecting... s*** to change. That... is... crazy." http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/30/dunkin-donuts-racist-thai-advert-blackface I myself don't find them that offensive, but It's like the ad agencies who keep coming up with these blackface ads think people will stop complaining about them and laugh if they keep at them.

I can't help but wonder if eventually that game will progress to the point that Leopard 2A6s and AMX-56 Leclercs are rolling around with T-34s and Shermans. They're getting pretty deep into the Cold War with M-60s an T-62s already.

People have contributed money to far more dubious causes in the days before Kickstarter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_Karyn Though I don't remember if she did have one donor donate an obscene amount of money to her. At the very least, she didn't push her luck and stopped taking donations when she reached her goal.

I never said it was good My dream of a great character action game where you played as a Harlequin Solitaire unfortunately died when Itagaki left THQ shortly before the company folded. That said, that part of me that loves Armoured Core, Shogo: Mobile Armour Divsion, and Heavy Gear actually thinks the Tau and their Crisis suits are pretty damn cool.

Well on the one hand, even if the Grey Knights are rank amateurs compared to the Harlequins, Harlequins do lack the iconic nature of Space Marines, and space elf ninja clowns, no matter how badass they are with all their colour, finesse, and the most nightmarish weaponry in the 40K lore, may not be as appealing in an age of Gears of War and would only appeal to 40K fans who walk the walk and talk the talk. On the other hand, Fire Warriors wouldn't have been my first choice for the subject of the first major mainstream action game based upon the franchise.

Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing. A great landing is one in which the plane can be used again. Take comfort you will in all likelihood do better than these guy:

The Frogfoot may be faster (though only barely in aeronautical terms) and has a SEAD capability you may be left longing for if you were in the Hawg. However the A-10C has the up in avionics and low-light operations (the LITENING II targeting pod has LLTV as standard), its iconic GAU-8 cannon fires a slightly longer round at a much higher muzzle velocity, and the fire-and-forget AGM-65 Mavericks leave the Su-25's Vikhr in the dust.

How have you found the "Rook" so far?

"Now nobody MOVE!"

Good news is that for the developers of good multiplayer titles that use GFWL as its online framework, such as Dark Souls, have plenty of time to make a switch to another online services such as Steamworks, as the shut-down comes in nearly a year's time. Bad news is they in all likelihood don't see the point of doing it.